Zhu Rongji Takes Ride on New Japanese High-speed Train

Zhu Takes Ride on New Japanese High-speed Train

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Monday took a test ride on a record-breaking magnetically levitated (Maglev) train, a prototype rail transport system under development in Japan.

"It was good," Zhu told reporters after experiencing a top speed of 452 kilometers (280 miles) per hour during a 20-minute ride at the Maglev test track in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo.

"But the noise and vibration inside the tunnel were bigger" than when he took a German version of the Maglev, Zhu said, according to Jiji Press news agency.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori lobbied during talks with Zhu on Friday for China to buy Japan's "shinkansen" bullet train technology for a planned Beijing-Shanghai link.

Asked whether Japan could win the contract, Zhu said: "There is a chance. But competition is needed."

French and German engineering companies are also pushing to win the contract for the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) high-speed line between China's political and business capitals.

The Chinese premier went back to Tokyo after visiting the Maglev project for lunch with Emperor Akihito.

He will board a bullet train in the evening to visit the western city of Kobe before leaving Japan for Seoul on Tuesday.

Japan holds the Guinness world record for the fastest speed attained by a rail-based vehicle, after the Maglev MLX01 clocked 552 kilometres (345 miles) per hour in an April 1999 test run.

Germany abandoned a similar project in February for cost reasons. [Source: chinadaily.com.cn]